Pay no attention to the people behind the curtain

Saturday, February 09, 2008

How Effective Are Concealed Carry Laws?

I fully expect the right to talk about the news from last night and use it as one more reason why they think Wisconsin needs to have a concealed carry law.

However, there are two basic flaws to their arguments.

First, it has been said time and time again how most of the gun shootings stem from gang members feuding with other members. Since both sides are armed, would this be a version of concealed carry, albeit not a legal one? Even though these gangsters know the other side is probably armed, this does nothing to slow them down from taking shots at each other. Why would the CCW proponents think that regular citizens being armed would slow these people down from using guns on them?

Secondly, as the CCW proponents are fond of pointing out, Wisconsin is one of the two or three states that don't have concealed carry laws. Yet in the last week or so, we have seen mass shootings in Chicago, Los Angeles, Baton Rouge and Kirkwood, MO. None of these shooters seemed to detered by the possibility of citizens having guns. Heck, even the shooters in L.A. and Kirkwood weren't detered by the police, who obviously have guns and extensive training in their use.

So, how can they possibly think that by having Wisconsin pass a CCW law would have any effect on shootings here?